#6 - JRL 7180
TV1 Review
www.1tv.ru
Compiled by Luba Schwartzman (luba_sch@hotmail.com)
Research Analyst, Center for Defense Information, Moscow office
HEADLINES,
Monday, May 12, 2003
- At least 41 people died and about 270 were injured when an explosive device went off in a KAMAZ truck, stopped in front of the checkpoint at the administrative building of the Nadterechnyi Region, in the Znamensk settlement of Chechnya. The bomb went off at about 10:05am. It was so powerful that it left a crater 10 meters in diameter and 4 meters deep.
- Russian President Vladimir Putin asked Federal Security Service Director Nikolai Patrushev to keep him informed of the investigation. Putin asserted that the terrorist act in Znamensk was an attempt to throw off the process of political regulation in Chechnya. He asked the Cabinet, the presidential administration, and the government of the Republic of Chechen to speed up work on the agreement on the delimitation of authority between the republic and the federal center.
- In Makhachkala, Daghestan, the search is on for unidentified men who attempted an assassination against Deputy Director of the Daghestan Ministry of Internal Affairs Magomed Omarov. Local residents saw men set up a landmine, which was exploded under Omarov's car. Major General Omarov had a concussion. His driver suffered burn injuries and minor fragment wounds.
- NATO General Secretary George Robertson is in Moscow to attend a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council. He will also meet with Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, representatives of the State Duma and other leading officials and politicians.
- President Putin discussed the housing problem with Cabinet members, told them about his trip to Tula, and reminded them that he expects concrete proposals for transition to contract-based military service by June 1.
- Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Razov and Lithuanian Deputy Foreign Minister Darius Jurgelevicius signed an agreement on the reciprocal return of illegal migrants.
- Deputy Prime Minister Galina Karelova met with United Russia Party activists to discuss the indexation of salaries of government employees.
- 10 people died in a fire in the three-level garage of the Alye Parusa luxury apartment building in the Northwest of Moscow. According to the preliminary results of the investigation, the fire began when a spark from tools used by construction workers fell on paint containers.
- Doctors have concluded that 24-year-old Denis Soinikov, hospitalized in Blagoveshchensk, does not have the severe acute respiratory syndrome.
- Russian and Tajik search-and-rescue workers held joint exercises in the mountains of Tajikistan.
- Colonel Yuri Budanov, accused of murdering an 18-year-old Chechen girl, will undergo a fourth psychological evaluation.
- Russian First Lady Ludmila Putina is on a visit in Yerevan on the invitation of Armenian First Lady Bella Kocharian.
- President Putin sent his congratulations to Russian poet Andrei Voznesensky, who celebrates his 70th birthday.